William F. Buckley Jr. left, talks with former California Gov. Ronald Reagan at the South Carolina Governor's Mansion in Columbia S.C., on Jan. 13,1978, after the two debated the Panama Canal Treaty. Associated Press file photo

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Milton Friedman, who won the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics, poses for a photo in a 1977 file photo. Associated Press file photo

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Ronald Reagan, Feb. 4, 1986. Associated Press file photo

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Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, shown with his wife, Rose, in San Francisco, in October 2006. MCT file photo

William F. Buckley Jr., the conservative pioneer and television "Firing Line" host, responds to questions during an interview July 20, 2004 in New York. Associated Press file photo

This decade brought the loss of four iconic friends of liberty whose ideas helped change the course of history. We will certainly miss President Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley Jr. and Milton and Rose Friedman.

Few American presidents have demonstrated the principled discipline of Ronald Reagan. His political career started in California as governor, but from the day he set foot in the Oval Office his global reach was evident. What made the Reagan presidency so important for those of us who cherish liberty was his unabashed criticism of the failures and of the ever-expanding role of government. He changed the national debate, making free-market solutions to public policy issues a viable course of action, and government solutions passé – at least temporarily. The Reagan economic agenda rejected Keynesian economics and government pump-priming, instead replacing it with tax cuts and the philosophy that money was best spent by the people who earned it.

His most notable and lasting achievement on the international front was pushing a U.S. military buildup, speaking to the virtues of individual liberty and engaging world leaders in ways that ultimately tipped communism, already eroding, into defeat and ended the Cold War. His most iconic moment, though, was his declaration at the Brandenburg Gate, calling for Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall and unite Germany.

Mr. Reagan died June 5, 2004.

It is hard to look back on the Reagan era without recalling one of President Reagan's intellectual allies, William F. Buckley. A sophisticated intellectual whose demeanor and charm changed the way conservatives were viewed, Mr. Buckley was probably best known as the founder of National Review, one of the most consequential liberty-leaning publications of the time. In debates with a leading liberal mind of the time, Gore Vidal, Mr. Buckley's quick wit and sharp tongue rapidly established him as one the leaders of the right's intellectual movement. His candor and personality attracted followers young and old, but his popularity among youth helped spawn a generation of credible scholars of like mind. He died Feb. 27, 2008.

In the past decade we also lost a dynamic duo for the freedom movement, Milton and Rose Friedman. While small in stature, the couple could not be ignored as powerhouse advocates for free enterprise and liberty-driven economic thought. Their greatest accomplishments include the book the couple co-authored, "Free to Choose," ideas economic liberty which were repurposed and broadcast around the world; "Capitalism and Freedom," the book in which the Friedmans identified educational choice as paramount for America's future; and his work on monetary policy with Anna Schwartz at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The life and legacy of Rose and Milton Friedman lives on in their body of work, but they continue to influence public discourse and policy through the activism of their foundation, the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Milton died Nov. 16, 2006; Rose died Aug. 18, 2009.

It's hard to believe that four of the most important liberty leaders are gone. While their memories and works will live on, they leave a void that desperately needs filling – especially now.

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